Anything But Routine

I am making a thoughtful, concerted effort to enjoy my summer more than last summer. Last summer I was lazy and unmotivated. This summer, I am making a choice to not waste it. Sure I still sit in the evenings and watch tv. Sometimes I spend the entire day in my chair, but the vast majority of days I'm doing something!

Here's what I've been up to:

There are road trips with good friends...

Going places I've never been! Such as a trip to the waterfall on a back road I don't know.

Cookouts involving adorable chicks hanging out on shoulders. Makes me want chickens even more!

Edge of the East Sidney Dam, where we had a big barbeque. Long drive, but worth it!

Skipping stones at East Sidney Dam; and some of the views.

I've been playing a lot of Badminton lately. I'm not really that great at it.

And I've been playing with camera settings. Right now I'm loving the Macro setting; getting lots of cool shots!
By the way, I have a Canon Powershot A2500. I got it to replace my old Powershot which has, unfortunately, developed a black spot that shows up on the picture. Gramma got one and I liked it. Then it went on sale ($58.99) and I snapped one up!

I like it, it's a great point and shoot. I have to say though, that I almost never just post the photos straight out of the camera.

	* I send all my photos through my (old and terribly outdated) Photoshop 7. (I wouldn't trade it for the new ones though!)
	* I'm a big fan of PW's Action Sets. Even though most of them don't work well with my outdated PS.
	* Also, I delete way more photos than I share with here or on my flickr, but ultimately I am more satisfied with the quality of the photos I've been taking this year.

Today I'm grateful for long summer days, sunshine, and sweat rolling down my back. Even though it means hot days, it also means honest work outside.

Until next time,

A Weekend for Friends

We went to the Arkville Fair this weekend. By "we" I mean my best friend, Rachel, and I.

This is Rachel. We've been friends since the fourth grade.
There was a parade with cars...
and horses...
and of course tractors! This is farm country after all!
There was a knight I posed with, and a lovely cow.
Good times with a wonderful person!
Even though Arkville is quite a drive for us, it was worth it. I wasn't overly impressed with the vendors, and we were promised a quilt show that was no where to be found, but it was a lovely town. Every single person we encountered was extremely nice. It's great to get that small town vibe away from home! We enjoyed ice cream and acting like fools (dancing... they had some good music!).

Lots of other stuff went on this weekend, but there are a lot of pictures to share and I feel like this is enough for one day!

Today I am grateful for Miss Rachel, a constant inspiration in my life.

Until next time,

A Bustling Week

This morning there was a cow in the road.


This year's raspberries forming on bushes planted last year.
Not an unusual sight on the back roads maybe, but on the main highway that connects all these little towns? A big happening. The cheeky cow was being moved and decided to stroll into the road for a minute. You should have seen Mr. Bishop hustle out after her, yelling at her to get back where she belonged. The poor cow was quite startled and stumbled, but she was alright. A grazed knee is a heck of a lot better than being road burger.

I was pretty startled too. And I didn't get a picture. It all happened too fast and I was much more concerned with stopping the vehicle than snapping photos.



I have been working all week, both jobs, and am looking forward to tomorrow off. Tomorrow is, after all, my only brother's 20th birthday. We're having Dirt Cake, and yes, I'll get the recipe and some pictures too. :)



I got my acceptance letter for full time college. I have a few things to tie up still (like financial aid), but you know, I think I'm looking forward to it.



Otherwise I have been taking a lot of photos and playing around with my (very outdated, but wouldn't trade it for the world) Photoshop. If you're interested, you should pop on over to my flickr account and have a look. I don't post all of my photos here and more day to day stuff can be seen there!

I am grateful to have two jobs, even if I'm grumbling about them today. It is one of those perfect summer days of utter beauty and I have all of one and a half hours to enjoy it. But that's still something.

Until next time,

Weekend Gone

The tomatoes are finally growing. I say finally as if they're really late, but they're not. Even though our growing season is a month late this year, tomatoes don't really get going until late July and August. So they're not late, I'm just impatient! The farmer's market had some lovely tomatoes, but they are green house grown, so they have an edge. Ours are coming along though!



Mom and I tried out the new dog clippers we got and shaved down the boys. Wow is it a lot easier when you have the right tools! Who knew? Us, the boys, the carpet, the freezer (our make-shift grooming table), and the blanket we had over the freezer were covered in loose hair. It was something else, let me tell you. I may be picking dog hair out of my teeth for days! We went outside to check on what the other members of our family were up to and to shake out the blanket.







Gramma and my brother Ben were out digging a railroad tie out from under the ground so the mower doesn't hit it anymore. (God only knows why they were there in the first place, the old railroad bed is nowhere near our property. Then again, we dig a lot of interesting things out of the ground around here.) Then they were trimming branches all along the wood line, including the old crab apple tree so the mower could fit under it again. I can't speak anything of my brother's choice of yard work clothes, though he did eventually come back in and put shoes on!



All in all, it was lovely weekend. The weather was sunny and warm and breezy and perfect. I hope yours was just as nice. We had fireworks on Friday, which I watched from a pile of bags of dirt outside the store with my best friend and some other people I love, a lazy day at work on Saturday filled with conversations with the wonderful people of this town, and a Sunday full of family activities and some really wonderful bonding time.

Today I am grateful for the long days of summer and the friends, food, and togetherness it brings.

Until next time,

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth my friends! I thought I'd share some pictures.

We didn't have the greatest weather as it was cloudy and threatening to rain most of the day. I'm good with rain most of the time... but when it coincides with fireworks I'm disappointed. I love fireworks! We didn't have to worry though - the rain held and we enjoyed a lovely display.

I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks (didn't bring my camera... whoops!), but here are the clouds.


As you can sort of see, storm clouds were passing, followed by cheerful fluffy white clouds, followed by more storm clouds! Strange weather.


Here's a few dark cloudy rolling ominously towards town - up the valley. Followed by a shot of down the valley, where most of the weather comes from. We can always see it coming unless something's up and a wind storm brings it over the mountain behind us, but that's so rare we have never seen it.


We didn't do anything special for the Fourth. Both mom and I had to work, so busy busy!

Hope yours was safe and special.

Today I am grateful for good friends to share fireworks with!

Until next time,